Olympics officials have cleared up the mystery over the water in a Games diving pool turning green overnight, blaming it on a chemical imbalance caused by too many athletes using it.
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A green contagion has reared itself at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre.
Earlier this week, the diving pool at the Rio Olympics mysteriously turned an alarming shade of green – and no one was able to explain why. “But we came here with a mind-set of ‘expect the unexpected.’ If the water was going to be orange, blue, green – it didn’t matter”.
But not only was the diving pool still green on Wednesday as the men’s synchronized three-metre springboard final got underway, observers noticed that the water polo pool right next to it also appeared greener than usual.
“I think it’s pretty normal for an outdoor pool, so it wasn’t a big deal for us”, said Pandelela Rinong, who won silver for Malaysia along with Cheong Jun Hoong. The spokesperson said the crew probably needed to take into consideration that more athletes in the pool would affect the water unlike previous tests conducted before the games began had revealed.
Algae could have proliferated because of too much heat and a too little wind in the venue, CNN reported.
“The reason is that the water must be still so the pool can return to its blue colour as soon as possible”.
Andrada maintained the green water posed no health issues for competitors and added the pools were being tested in accordance with the International Olympic Committee’s directives. “We always put the health and safety of athletes in the first place”, he said.
Spectators and athletes were greeted by the rather unusual sight of the coloured water on Tuesday, and so far it has been somewhat of a mystery.
Some experts are not so sure the swimmers should be swimming in the green water.
“Chemistry is not an exact science”, he said.
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Algae is the reason for the green color in the pool, which is so prevalent players can not see the bottom of the pool.
